
TRIBUTE 



MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



TO THE MEMORY OF 



THE HON. JAMES SAYAGE, LL.D. 



TRIBUTE 



MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



TO THE MEMORY OF THEIR 



Eate Senior ificinljEr nnli Jormcr |3rcsiti£nt, 



THE HON. JAMES SAYAGE, LL.D., 



March 13, 1873. 



D>®iC 



BOSTON: 

PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON. 
1873. 



' ^(fi 



TRIBUTE. 



At a stated meeting of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society, on the evening of the 13th of March, 1873, 
at the house of their associate, H. M. Mason, Esq. ; the 
President, the lion. Robert C. Winthrop, spoke as 
follows : — 

Gentlemen of the Massachusetts Historical Society: 

We have so recently been called to attend the funeral of our 
late venerable Senior Member and former President, the Hon. 
James Savage, that it is only as a matter for record that his 
death, on Saturday, the 8th inst., requires any formal announce- 
ment to the Society this evening. I need hardly say that we 
cannot consider it a subject for the expression of sorrow. 
Even those nearest and dearest to him, who have so tenderly 
watched over him in his infirmities, during the last eight or 
nine years, must have abundant consolation for their bereave- 
ment. We may all, indeed, have found cause for satisfaction 
and gratitude, as we learned that, in the good providence of 
God, our aged friend was at length happily released from the 
' burdens of the flesh, and of the spirit, which have weighed 
upon him so heavily since he had come to fourscore years. 

Yet none of us, I am sure, can see his name disappearing 
at last from the very top of our living roll, altogether without 
emotion ; and, certainly, not without pausing to pay a more 



than common tribute of respect and affection to his memory. 
Quite apart from all the personal qualities and associations 
■which had endeared him to us so warmly, we cannot forget 
that the removal of his name from our roll has sundered the 
last link between our Society of this generation and that little 
company of Historical Students and lovers of antiquity in 
which it originated more than eighty years ago. We have, it 
is true, still in our ranks, and we rejoice to remember that it 
is so, more than one of those who have seen as many years of 
human life as our departed friend. But there is no one now 
left, among our existing members, whose relation to our Society 
commenced within a quarter of a century of the date of his 
election ; no one, who witnessed the small Ijeginnings of our 
work, or who was associated, as he was, with any of those by 
whom that work was originally organized. 

Mr. Savage was chosen a member of this Society on the 
28th of January, 1813. He had thus been a member for a 
little more than sixty years, — a longer term than any on our 
records, as I believe, except that of the late venerable Josiah 
Quincy, who had completed his sixty-eighth year of continu- 
ous membership, when he died, in 1864, at ninety-two years 
of age. 

When Mr. Savage was elected. Dr. Jeremy Belknap, our 
honored founder ; Governor Sullivan, our first President ; the 
Rev. Dr. Thacher, and the Hon. George Richards Minot, 
were, indeed, no more. But the Rev. Dr. Eliot, the Rev. Dr. 
Freeman, the Hon. William Tudor, Thomas Wallcut, Esq., the 
Hon. James Winthrop, and the Hon. William Baylies, — six 
of our Decemvirs, — six of the ten whose election dates back 
to the 24th of January, 1791, and who on that day met to- 
gether and organized the Society, — were still living and active 
members. With them, when Mr. Savage was elected, were 
associated, among others. Governor Gore, then the President 
of the Society ; Judge Davis, and Lieutenant-Governor Win- 
throp, who succeeded him in that office ; Dr. Manasseh Cutler, 



who, twenty years before, had led the way of the pioneer emi- 
grants to the Ohio River ; Dr. Thaddeus Mason Harris, Dr. 
Prince and Dr. Bentley, of Salem ; Dr. Homer, of Newton ; 
Dr. Morse, the Geographer; Dr. Abiel Holmes, the Annalist; 
John xVdams, Caleb Strong, Alden Bradford, Professors Peck 
and McKean, President Kirkland, and Dr. Pierce, — besides 
Josiah Quincy and John Qnincy Adams, whose membership, 
— to a few of us, at least, — is something more than a tra- 
dition. 

Mr. Savage was but twenty-nine years of age, when he be- 
came associated with these men in our ranks ; and as no pro- 
fessional or public duties ever took him far away from his 
native place, for any considerable length of time, his services 
to our Society, and his attendance at its meetings, were in the 
way of being, and unquestionably were, more prolonged, con- 
tinuous, and constant, than those of any other member, from 
its foundation. 

Accordingly, we find him Librarian, from 1814 to 1818 ; a 
member of the Publishing Committee of five several volumes 
of our Collections, in 1815, 1816, 1819, 1823, and 1825 ; 
Treasurer from 1820 to 1839 ; a member of the Standing 
Committee from 1818 to 1820, and from 1835 to 1811 ; and 
the President of the Society from 1811 to 1855. Having then 
passed the terra of threescore years and ten, he claimed, as he 
certainly had a right to claim, an honorable dismission from 
the routine of official duty. 

It seems but yesterday, that I succeeded him in this chair, 
at the close of our Annual Meeting, on the 12th of April, 
1855, when, on motion of our late accomplished associate, Mr. 
Ticknor, it was unanimously resolved, " That the members of 
this Society, — mindful of the excellent services which, for 
fourteen years, the Hon. James Savage has rendered as its 
President, and of liis peculiar fitness for that place, not only 
on all other grounds, but from his extraordinarily accurate 
knowledge of whatever relates to the early history of New 



England, — do now express their great regret at his resigna- 
tion, and offer him their thanks for his long-tried and uniform 
fidelity to their interests." It seems but yesterday, that, in 
taking the seat which he had so held and honored, I was 
speaking of that fulness of information, that richness of rem- 
iniscence, that raciness of remark and repartee, which had 
so often given the highest relish to our monthly meetings, 
which was then to be lost to the chair ; — and which is now 
lost to us for ever. Eighteen years have since passed away, 
during the first half of which he continued to be one of our 
most punctual and assiduous members, ever entering our 
rooms with that eager, animated, joyous look, which betokened 
that he felt as much pleasure as he imparted. Since then, for 
us, all has been silence. 

Was I not right, Gentlemen, in suggesting that, while his 
name remained at the head of our roll, even though it were 
only a name, or even but the shadow of a name, we seemed 
to have a living tie to the old traditions, the old worthies, 
and the old workers and organizers, of our Society, which is 
now finally sundered ? Certainly, his death at this moment, 
— just as we are about entering on the occupation of our 
reconstructed Halls, — seems to conspire most impressively 
with that event, in marking still a new departure for our 
Society, still another era in its history, when the responsi- 
bilities for its future usefulness and honor are to be unshared 
with even one of those who had been witnesses, or partakers 
in any way, of its early experiences and its narrower fortunes. 
Certainly, it seems to call upon us, — as we enter on that era, 
with nothing left of the Founders and their early associates 
and followers except their inspiring memory and example, — 
for a warmer interest in the welfare of the Institution which 
they so loved and honored, and for a deeper devotion to the 
work for which they estal)lishcd it. 

The most interesting and valuable contributions, which were 
made by Mr. Savage to our own published volumes, were un- 



doubteilly his " Gleanings for New England History," pre- 
pared by him immediately on his return from a summer visit 
to England in 1842, and which were followed by '' More," and 
" More Gleanings," not long afterwards. 

But the great historical laljors of his life, his two Editions 
and Annotations of " Winthrop's History of New England from 
1630 to 1619," and his wonderful Genealogical Dictionary of 
New England, were hardly less in our service than if they had 
formed a part of our own Collections. If a new edition of the 
Winthrop, certainly, should ever be demanded, it might well 
be placed side by side with the Bradford, and under the care 
of the same hand, among the publications of this Society, and 
it would be a fit monument to the memory of our departed 
friend. 

I am aware, however. Gentlemen, that we are all thinking at 
this moment much more of the man we have lost, than of his 
services to our Society, or of his work in the cause of New 
England History, which can never be lost. He comes back to 
many of us, to-night, as he was twenty years ago, in the old 
Pilgrim Chair, before the old Provincial Desk, in the old dusty 
rooms of our Society, — before the name of Thomas Dowse had 
been breathed among us ; or, certainly, before his benefactions, 
by the marvellous alchemy of good George Livermore, had 
transmuted all that belonged to us into something more pre- 
cious than gold. 

He was at that day, — and with those surroundings, -.- the 
perfect impersonation of an Antiquary, in form and feature, in 
speech and in spirit. He had few or none of the smoothnesses 
and roundnesses of conventional life ; and though he did not 
aftect or cultivate singularity, he by no means scorned that part 
of his nature which rendered him singular. He would be 
called, in common parlance, — and he has often been called, — 
a man of strong and oven intense prejudices. Yet I think he 
never prejudged any thing or anybody. It was only when he 
had known any person in society, or had studied any person 



8 

or any passage in history, that he conceived opinions which 
nothing could change, and which ching to him, and he to them, 
ever afterwards. His impulsive and even explosive utterances 
of such opinions were never to be forgotten by those who wit- 
nessed them. Still less could any one ever forget his exuberant 
exultations, when his searches and researches were rewarded, 
by verifying some disputed date, or discovering some historical 
fact, or by lighting upon some lost historical manuscript. He 
rejoiced, as the Psalmist describes it, " as one that findeth 
great spoil." His " Eureka " had all the elation and ecstasy 
of that of the old philosopher of Syracuse. 

He was eminently a character, even for a Tale or a Drama. 
His marked peculiarities would have given a vivid interest to 
any story, and his racy utterances would have enlivened any 
dialogue. If he had chanced to have been one of the neigh- 
bors of Sir Walter Scott, he could never have escaped the fate, 
let me rather say the felicity, which befell so many of those 
neighbors, of figuring in one of the Waverley Novels. 

I remember that Thackeray once passed an evening with 
him at my own house, at a meeting of the old Wednesday 
Night Club of 1770, of which he was so long a member. 
When I met Thackeray afterwards, his immediate remark 
was, " I want to see that quaint, charming, old Mr. Savage 
again." 

In a conversation with Walter Savage Landor, then eighty 
years old, at his own villa in Florence, in 1860, he greeted me by 
saying, " I know all about your family and the old Founder of 
New England ; " and then he forthwith went on to speak of 
the Savage family, whose name he bore, including the old Earl 
of Rivers and our James Savage, of Boston, whose edition 
of Winthrop he had evidently seen. There were occasional 
scintillations and coruscations exhibited in common by Landor 
himself and by our departed friend, which miglit have indi- 
cated an affinity or consanguinity, even after the genealogists 
had failed to trace them. 



9 

If there was anybody wliom the late Ijord Braybrooke, the 
editor of Pepys, or Dr. Bliss, the editor of Wood's Athenae 
Oxonienses, or Joseph Eomilly, the late Registrar of old Cam- 
bridge, or Joseph Hunter, the Antiquary par excellence of Her 
Majesty's Record Office, remembered and valuefl in America, 
it was Mr. Savage. He had corresponded with them all, and 
had known them all personally, while he was visiting Eng- 
land. 

To come nearer home, I may not forget that I rarely if ever 
met, after a longer or a shorter a!)senco, my late lamented 
friend, John P. Kennedy, of Baltimore, who had as keen a 
relish and as quick an appreciation of wit and of wisdom as 
Thackeray or even Sydney Smith, that it was not his second 
exclamation, if not his first, " How is our old friend Savage ? 
Is he as earnest, and humorous, and funny as ever ? " 

I may be pardoned for remembering, too, that it was from a 
member of this Society, elected eight years after him, but who 
died in early manhood, forty years before him, who sympathized 
with him in all his pursuits, and aided him in many of his 
researches and labors, and was nnto him for many years 
almost as a brother, as he was to myself an own brother, — 
the late James Bowdoin,* — that I first learned to a[)preciate 
the sterling qualities of our friend's mind and character ; his 
minute exactness ; his untiring perseverance ; his inexhausti- 
ble patience of research ; his mingled impetuosity and tender- 
ness ; his sympathy with the sufferings of others, and his brave 
endurance of his own. 

But I must not forget how many there are around me who 
have known him longer and better than myself, and who will 
more than supply any deficiencies of my own tribute. I omit, 
therefore, all notice of the public trusts in the City and in the 
State, and as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 

* The second son of the hite Lieutenant-Governor Winthrop, who died in his thirty- 
ninth J'ear, on the 6th of March, 1833, and of whom a brief Memoir is contained in 
Vol. IX., 3d Series, of our Collections. 

2 



10 

1820, which he discharged so well ; all notice of the grand 
work he did for the conimnnity in organizing and presiding 
over that Provident Institution for Savings, where, for a few 
years, I was monthly at his side ; all notice, too, of the Chris- 
tian resignation and bravery with which he bore domestic 
trials, which might have crushed a feebler spirit. Let me only 
say, in conclusion, that the death of his only son in the late 
Civil "War, — a son of the same name with himself, and who 
had given every promise of transmitting that name with 
increased distinction to future generations, — has doubled the 
obligation which rests upon us, to guard that name from being 
lost to the records either of patient and successful historic 
research, or of patriotic and heroic self-sacrifice.* 

Mr. Edmund Quincy, from the Standing Committee, 
then offered the following resolutions : — 

Eesolved, That the Massachusetts Historical Society, in recording 
the death of their oldest member and former President, the Hon. 
James Savage, wouhl add the expression of their grateful sense of his 
long services as a member and officer of the Society, and of the invalu- 
able contributions to the History of New England, and especially of 
Massachusetts, which are due to his indomitable industry and con- 
scientious accuracy. 

Resolved, That the family of Mr. Savage may be assured that there 
are none of the inhabitants of this city where his life was passed that 
can have a more sincere respect and admiration for his character and 
conduct both in public and private life, or a more warmly cherished 
recollection of their personal intercourse with him, than the members 
of this Society. 

Resolved, That the President be requested to appoint one of our 
associates to prepare a Memoir of Mr. Savage for the Proceedings of 
the Society. 

* Lieutenant-Colonel James Savage, Jr., died at Charlottesville, Virginia, Oct. 22, 
18G2, of wounds received at the battle of Cedar Mountain. He was born April 21, ]832, 
and graduated at Harvard University with the class of 1854. An interesting Memoir 
of him may be found in the first volume of " Harvard Memorial Biographies." 



11 

Mr. Charles Deane then said : — 

Nothing surely need be added, Mr. President, to complete 
your own full and just tribute to our late Senior Member ; yet 
I cannot resist the opportunity of saying a few words, for the 
memories which I cherish of Mr. Savage are most pleasant. 
I shall never forget how cordially he welcomed me when a 
young man, nearly twenty-five years ago, into this Society, 
then limited to sixty members. There were fifty-eight names 
upon the Resident Roll at that time, only eighteen of which 
now remain. And what a galaxy of brilliant names they 
were, of which so many have been stricken off" by death ! 
Memory recalls the venerable form of Quincy, so long our 
Senior Member, and of Everett, and Gray, and Prescott, and 
Webster, and Sparks, and Ticknor, and Choate, and Froth- 
ingham, and Shaw, and Young, and others I need not enume- 
rate. The name of Savage is now added to the list of the 
dead. 

Mr. Savage will be remembered as the New England Anti- 
quary by way of eminence. The late Joseph Hunter, as I 
remember, somewhere draws a distinction — perhaps a fanciful 
one — between the Antiquary and the Historian. It belongs to 
the antiquary, he says, to gather up the small facts of history, 
the fragments of truth, to be a gleaner in the liy-ways of the 
past. Mr. Savage had a peculiar facility for all this. With 
a persistency and an enthusiasm I never saw surpassed, he 
would pursue the inquiry into the smallest incidents of history. 
They were not small to him. He saw that they had a place, 
and had important relations to other facts. 

But Mr. Savage was not merely an antiquary. Like his 
friend Mr. Hunter, he had many of the higher qualities of an 
historian. He saw the relations of historical facts to each 
other, and could trace the principle or law by which nations or 
communities rise or decay, and opinions change from age to 
age. The history of New England was all written out on the 



12 

tablets of his memory, if he had never written it elsewhere. 
But his annotations to Winthrop's History are a marvellous 
embodiment of facts and opinions, which show how thoroughly 
he understood the subject that he undertook to illustrate. 

Gibbon somewhere says of the ecclesiastical historian Til- 
lemont, that his wonderful accuracy almost assumes the 
character of Genius. Mr, Savage's love of accuracy was 
never excelled. He always meant to be right ; he always felt 
that he was right ; and perhaps few had attained to a higher 
degree of exactness in investigations kindred to his own. He 
took nothing upon trust. He felt that here a missing link, as 
in the chain of circumstantial evidence in weaving its meshes 
round the criminal, was fatal to the proof. 

The discovery of the manuscript of Governor Winthrop's 
3d volume of the History of New England, in 1816, in the 
tower of the Old South Church, was most providential, when 
we consider into whose hands it was committed, to copy and to 
illustrate. Mr. Savage was then a young man, but he had 
been elected a member of this Society three years before. He 
immediately set about the task of copying and annotating the 
volume, but he soon determined to prepare a new edition of the 
whole work, including the two earlier volumes, published at 
Hartford, in 1790, of which the manuscripts were in the 
cabinet of this Society. This edition, owing to various cir- 
cumstances, did not appear till 1825-26. Its publication at 
that time formed a new era in the history of annotation of our 
New England chronicles. No other work, it is true, extant 
among us, relating to our annals, was of equal value ; but such 
as had been published were not annotated. Hubbard's History 
had been issued by the Society as ])arts of the Collections, 
but without notes or illustrations. Judge Davis's edition of 
Morton's Memorial, copied from the first printed edition of 
1669, with full notes by the editor, had been long in course 
of preparation, and soon followed this edition of Winthrop. 

In turning over Mr. Savage's numerous letters to me, 



13 

written some fifteen or twenty years ago, wlien he was en- 
gaged on his last great work, his Genealogical Dictionary of 
New England, — a monument of labor and patience, — I am 
reminded of the many curious questions in history, genealogy, 
and bibliography which he was so fond of discussing. There 
were some points on which we differed, — if I may be pardoned 
for saying that I ever ventured to differ from him on any sub- 
ject, — and long discussions, harmless certainly, if not always 
convincing, sometimes ensued. As an illustration of the 
thoroughness with which Mr. Savage pursued his investigations, 
I may be permitted to refer to one instance which came under 
my own observation. There had been, as is well known, a 
tradition for many years in the Rogers family in New England, 
among those descended from the Rev. Nathaniel Rogers of 
Ipswich, that he was a grandson of the proto-martyr of Queen 
Mary's reign. There was a link wanting in the chain of evi- 
dence. Mr. Savage had no faith in the tradition, which 
could not be traced beyond the time of Hutchinson. It was, 
however, warmly cherished by descendants of the Ipswich 
family ; and among the tangible pieces of evidence produced, 
it was stated that a branch of the family, in a neighboring 
town, had a copy of the Bible which, according to invariable 
tradition, once belonged to the martyr himself, — indeed, it was 
said to be the identical copy which he carried with him to the 
stake, and that it bore upon its leaves the marks of fire. This 
was thought to be an overwhelming piece of testimony to the 
fact that the owners of that Bible were lineal descendants of 
the martyr. Unfortunately, like most of the ancient Bibles, 
the title-page which bore the date was gone. This only 
whetted Mr. Savage's determination tlie more to ascertain 
when that book was printed. It bore the monogram of Cawood, 
a well-known London printer of the 16th century. So a leaf of 
this memorable scorched relic was procured, and through the 
intervention of our late member, Mr. Livermore, was sent to 
Mr. George Offor, an eminent biblical bibliographer, of London, 



14 

who diligently compared it with all the known editions of 
Cawood ; and he proved beyond a qnestion that the volume was 
a copy of the edition of 1561, — six years after the martyr^ 
death. 

Mr. Savage's well-known tastes and pursuits, and marked 
qualities of mind, drew around him a large number of attached 
friends and admirers. Among those whom I have named as 
members here when I was first elected an associate, was the 
Rev. Alexander Young, D.D., a thorough antiquary and an 
exact scholar. He had a great admiration for Mr. Savage, and 
of every thing he said and did. He once told me that he was 
accustomed to read over and over again the notes to Winthrop's 
History, apart from the text. The information he there 
gleaned, expressed in the quaint and inverted style of the 
editor, gave him the highest satisfaction and enjoyment ; and 
he always gathered up his odd sayings of wit and wisdom as 
they fell from his lips, seated, as President of this Society, in 
the old Governor Winslow chair, and regretted that there was 
no Boswell to collect and preserve these Sava^i/cana in a perma- 
nent form. 

With the kindliest nature and the most delicate sensibilities, 
Mr. Savage also would have realized Dr. Johnson's idea of 
a " good hater." He hated Cotton Mather with a deadly hatred. 
The late Richard Biddle, the author of the Life of Sebastian 
Cabot, whom he made his hero, relentlessly pursued the 
memory of Richard Hakluyt, the eminent historical collector, 
who lived two centuries and a half before him, because he 
thought that historian had furnished evidence unfairly that 
John Cabot, the father, and not Sebastian, the son, discovered 
North America. One would almost as soon think of getting 
an<n'y with the North Pole for eluding the search of the dis- 
coverers. 

But Mr. Savage thought that Cotton Mather was a sham ; 
that he was weak and credulous, and worse ; and that his 
historical statements were not to be trusted. He had gathered 



15 

up traditionary anecdotes of him which I never saw recorded 
in print, and which I suppose he believed, because he felt they 
were so like the subject of them. 

I remember reading, when a boy, John Foster's " Essay 
on Decision of Character," and I felt that the qualities there 
commended were the highest objects to which a young man 
could aspire. Mr. Savage was distinguished for this admi- 
rable quality of decision and independence of character. It 
is absolutely refreshing in a community like ours, where few 
dare to have an opinion before they know what the public 
think, to see a man form his own independent judgment, and 
stand by it. There is a great invisible tyrant stalking about 
the community we call " public opinion," which everybody 
fears, and nobody dares encounter ; which lays down its inex- 
oral)le laws, and puts its ban on all who resist them. I once 
asked a man what he thought of a certain public transaction, 
then of recent occurrence, involving no hard problems to solve. 
He replied that he was not prepared to give an opinion till he 
had seen what the newspapers of the following morning had 
to say. A man who forms his judgment in the clear white 
light of truth, irrespective of lower considerations which unfor- 
tunately bias most minds, stands out before his fellows as a 
marked man, and by way of contrast challenges respect. He 
is a tower of strength to the weak and shuffling creatures who 
dare not call their souls their own. Such a man was Mr. Savage. 
He sometimes erred, — for to err is human, — but he was 
always true to himself. 

Remarks were also made by Dr. A. P. Peabody, Judge 
Hoar, and Dr. George E. Ellis. 

The resolutions were unanimously adopted, all the 
members rising. 

The President appointed Mr. Hillard to prepare the 
Memoir for the Society's Proceedings. 



16 

The following notice of Mr. Savage, from the pen of 
an associate, the Hon. George S. Hillard, appeared in 
the " Boston Daily Advertiser," of March 10, 1873 : — 

James Savage has passed away from earth after a long life 
of nearly eighty-nine years, — a life of noble aims and faithful 
work, marked in every stage by honor, truth, integrity, and 
courage, and not less marked by warm affections, readiness of 
sympathy, and a frank sweetness of nature which made every- 
body that knew him love him. We do not propose at this 
time to give any extended account of his life and labors, but 
merely to notice some of those peculiar traits of character for 
which he will ever be held in such love and honor by his 
friends. 

Mr. Savage's literary labors, as is well known, were given to 
the early history of New England, wherein in accuracy and 
extent of knowledge he had no rival. And in his own person 
he was an illustration of the saying " aheunt studia m 7nores,'^ 
for his character seemed to have been moulded in a measure 
on his studies. He was eminently a New England product, 
and a flavor of the soil was recognized in all his life and acts. 
He took from the Puritan fathers of New England all that 
made them admiraljle, and rejected all that made them un- 
lovable. He had their religious faith, their inflexible sense of 
duty, their heroic spirit, their purity of life ; but he had not 
their narrowness, their austerity, or their bigotry. 

Or we may state what Mr. Savage was in another way. 
Take an old Roman of the best days of the republic, and upon 
tliat stem of maidy oak engraft all the sweet charities and 
benignities of Christianity, and you liave him. 

He had by his side all through life the two lion virtues of 
truth and courage. His love of truth was a passion. He 
detested every form of moral falsehood, and he was hardly less 
intolerant of every form of intellectual inaccuracy. A wrong 



17 

date made him furious. It was amusing to hear the vehemence 
with which he would denounce an erroneous statement, an 
omission, or a mistake. 

He was as brave as he was true. He was, as all his friends 
knew, earnest in nature and fervid in speech. He would 
sometimes, under provocation, break out in tempestuous utter- 
ances which startled strangers ; but never for this did he lose 
any man's love or respect. He was as transparent as glass. 
He had strong prejudices, but he never took pains to conceal 
them. There was something kindling and inspiring in his 
manliness and frankness. To be with him was to have the 
fresh mountain wind blowing on one's face. How delightful it 
was to see an old man of eighty so warm in feeling, so frank 
in speech, sometimes saying what self-vigilant prudence would 
have counselled him to suppress ! 

" Behold the man ! he speaks the truth, 
He's greater than a king." 

But these heroic qualities in Mr. Savage were unaccompanied 
by sternness or coldness. He was as tender as he was true. 
Under a vehement and fervid temperament there lay an 
invincible sweetness. Every warm and generous affection 
found a place in his heart. As a husband, father, brother, 
and friend, he was all that duty could prompt or love inspire. 
He was bounteous in his benefactions, and as unostentatious 
as he was liberal. He had many claims, and they were always 
met. His most intimate friends did not suspect how large a 
portion of his income was given to others. 

By the side of his manly virtues there ran a vein of feminine 
softness. Few women, for instance, were ever so fond of 
children as he was. In their presence his face was luminous 
vnth pleasure. And when, somewhat late in life, the blessing 
of children was given to him, his joy was like the joy of Racliel 
when Joseph had been granted to her prayer. 

In Mr. Savage's speech, manners, and character, there 
was something original, peculiar, and striking. There was 

3 



18 

nothing formal or conventional about him. He was full of the 
grace of unexpectedness. His conversation was delightful, not 
merely from the abundant and accurate knowledge with which 
it was enriched, but from the rich and quaint humor with 
which it was seasoned. He said bright and pointed things 
which were quoted and remembered. He was frank, playful, 
and simple in speech, as might have been expected from his 
truthfulness and courage. 

His manners were a model of that genuine courtesy which 
flows from a warm and true heart. Believing in law, order, 
and degree, he was no respecter of persons. He honored 
worth wherever he found it ; and meanness and insincerity 
earned his contempt, though gilded with wealth and station. 

His declining life was tried with many sorrows. His wife 
and three children, out of four, preceded him to the tomb. 
His only son gave up his precious life at the call of patriotic 
duty. All these trials were borne by him with a touching 
patience and submission which awakened a feeling of reverence 
in those who knew how keenly and deeply they were felt. 

And his long and noble life was fitly closed. His last few 
years, though touched with infirmity, were gentle and happy. 
Encompassed by the most tender and vigilant affection, he 
calmly awaited the inevitable hour. It came at last, without 
struggle, without pain. Peacefully, gradually, as the sound of 
a bell dies upon the air, he passed away. His soul was released 
by a touch as gentle as that of morning light upon tlie lids of 
the sleeper. 

His last utterance was characteristic. A few hours before 
his death, when he had long been silent, a member of his 
family asked him how he did. Rousing himself, he answered 
in a faint voice, " Bravely." This word is the key-note of his 
life. It might be appropriately carved upon his tombstone, 
for no man ever spoke, thought, acted, lived more bravely 
than he. 



19 

The ensuing brief sketch also appeared in the " Ad- 
vertiser," of the same date as the above. 

Dr. James Savage died at Berkeley House, Saturday morn- 
ing, March 8, at the age of eighty-eight. He was born in Winter 
Street, July 13, 1784. He was a descendant of Major Savage, 
who, in 1663, undertook to erect a barricade in the harbor for 
the security of the inhabitants against a fleet then expected 
from Holland, and this barricade grew in less than forty years 
to Long Wharf. Major Savage is buried in King's Chapel 
burying-ground. Among his ancestors was the celebrated Ann 
Hutchinson. His grandfather, Habijah Savage, was a graduate 
at Harvard College in 1695. He held many civil and military 
positions. His father was Habijah Savage, a merchant, who 
married Miss Tudor. In 1795, James Savage received a 
Franklin medal, and he subsequently continued his education 
at the Derby Academy, in Hingham, and the Washington 
Academy at Machias, Maine. He entered Harvard College, and 
was graduated in 1803. For four years he had been the only 
survivor of that class, and there are only four older graduates 
of Harvard College now living. He received his degree of A.M. 
in 1806, delivered the Phi Beta Kappa oration in 1812, and 
the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him in 1841. After 
the completion of his collegiate course he studied law with 
Chief- Justice Parker, Samuel Dexter, and William Sullivan, 
and became a member of the Suffolk bar in 1807. He with 
others in 1816 originated the Provident Institution for Savings, 
with which he was connected in an official capacity until the 
intirmities of old age had impaired his faculties. July 4, 1811, 
he delivered the oration before the city autliorities. In 
1820, he was a delegate to the constitutional convention ; 1823 
and 1825, a member of the common council (but three of his 
colleagues, one of them the venerable Charles Sprague, are 
now living) ; 1826, a State senator ; 1827-28, an alderman. 
He was one of the founders of the Boston Athenieum, and one 



20 

of the editors of " The Monthly Anthology," and for many 
years a contributor to " The North American Review," and to 
" The New England Magazine." He has been President of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society, and honorary membership of 
many literary and historical societies at home and abroad has 
been conferred upon him. Winthrop's " History of New 
England," with notes and a Genealogical Dictionary of the 
first settlers of New England, are his literary monuments. 
He had travelled in Europe and the West Indies. He proved 
himself during the war the generous, high-minded, and patriotic 
citizen ; but the death of his only son. Colonel James Savage 
(October 22, 1862), who was wounded and taken prisoner 
at the battle of Cedar Mountain, proved a severe blow. One of 
the last occasions on which he spoke in public was in 1864, 
when the death of Jared Sparks was announced to the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society. He leaves one daughter, the wife 
of Professor William B. Rogers of the Institute of Technology. 
The Massachusetts Historical Society will attend the funeral in 
a body at Arlington Street Church to-morrow at two o'clock. 



WILL OF JAMES SAYAGE. 



I JAMES SAVAGE, of Boston, Esq., do make, publish, and 
9 declare this my last will and testament, as hereunto follows: — 

First. To the President and Fellows of Harvard College I give the 
sum of forty thousand dt)llars, the income of which shall be annually 
applied to the support: first, of one scholarship, wherein the beneficiary 
may receive not less than two hundred nor more than three hundred 
dollars in each year ; and the surplus income thereof shall be divided 
to the Library of the University and the Astronomical Observatory, but 
wholly without regard to arithmetical proportion, on the sole order of 
the President and Fellows annually, as in their judgment the need of 
these two departments may in each year severally require, so that the 
appropriation may, at their sole discretion, in each year, be less or 
krger than the preceding year ; and, further, I give them the power of 
selecting from my library one hundred volumes of the most curious, 
rare, or valuable books, to be in their library for ever preserved, with 
my benediction. 

Second : To the Massachusetts Historical Society I give the sum of 
five thousand dollars, of the income whereof no use shall be made 
except for increase of said Society's Library, at the discretion of said 
Society's Standing Committee, who shall annually make report of 
their doings herein ; and, further, I give said Society my collection of 
coins, medals, and currency, whether of gold, silver, bronze, brass, cop- 
per, mixed metals, paper or other materials, with the little cabinet for 
them designed, now wholly without arrangement, a very small portion 
only of said collection having been purchased by me more than half 
a century ago, as I had little leisure for such exacting study ; and the 
aggregate value of this collection may not, I hope, be slighted, inas- 
much as much of the best parts of these irrefragable muniments of his- 
tory were gifts from very competent appraisers, Joseph G. Cogswell 
and George Ticknor, by them so long since gathered in their travels 
or residence in Egypt, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Great Britain, 



22 

or elsewhere ; and those friends probably foresaw this ultimate desti- 
nation of their munificence ; and, further, I give said Society the right 
of selecting from my library a hundred volumes, after the selection for 
the university is made, but with right exclusively in the four volumes 
of my Genealogical Dictionary of New England, and the two volumes 
of the later edition of Wiuthrop's History of New England ; further, 
I make urgent request of said Society to allow neither of these six vol' 
umes to be withdrawn from their rooms except in special regard to 
the object of reprinting either of them in revised editions under the 
Society's care, because in the margins of the pages of both, and partic- 
ularly of the dictionary, abundant additions and not a few corrections 
are inserted. 

Third : I give to Elizabeth Stillman, widow of Henry D. Rogers, 
Queen's Professor at the University of Glasgow, the sum of six thou- 
sand dollars, with the picture in imitation of ray daughter, Lucy, whose 
last days she ministered to. 

Eourth : I give to the daughters of the late Hon. Luther S. Cusliing, 
grandchildren of my deceased wife, the sum of six thousand dollars, 
equally to be divided. 

Fifth : I give to Rebecca A. Hillard, elder sister of my late wife, 
the sum of four hundred dollars each year of her natural life, in quar- 
terly payments, that is, one hundred on the first days of February, 
May, August, and November, or whichever of said months may first 
occur. 

Next : I give to the only child of my well-beloved grandniece, 
Elizabeth, widow of Rev. Mr. Bucke, deceased, the sum of one thou- 
sand dollars. 

Next : I give to the infant son of the daughter of my excellent 
friend. Rev. Ezra S. Gannett, the sum of two thousand dollars, as pi"0- 
vision for expense of his education, in three months from my death to 
be put at interest. 

Next : I give the son of my dear friend, Mary E. Josselyn, of Mai- 
den, named Arthur Savage, the sum of two thousand dollars, for the 
education of him at Harvard College, and 2:)reparation therefor. 

Next : I give ten thousand dollars for scholarships in the institution 
whereof my son-in-law, William B. Rogers, is President. 

Next : 1 give to James O. L. Hillard, son of Rebecca, before named, 
the sum of one thousand dollars for his many services to me. 

And lastly : I give and devise all my other property, real and per- 
sonal to my only daughter, P^mma, and her husband, William B. Rogers, 
for their joint lives, and to the survivor of them for ever, my half- 



23 

share in the Boston Pier or Long Wharf, being one-forty-cighth of said 
wharf, with my warehouse, being No. 19, thereon, otherwise called or 
known as No. 200 State Street, subject, however, to the payment of 
four hundred dollars annually to Harriet ISl., widow of my brother, 
AVilliam Savage, as in his will provided, in equal quarterly payments 
on April, July, October, and January 1st. Yet, though to the discre- 
tion of my said devisees is hereby given the power of retaining my 
mansion-house in Boston, and my two dwelling-houses at Lunenburg, 
or either of them, I most earnestly advise that my estate in and upon 
the Long Wharf be always retained during their lives, because it was 
most of the property of my father, to him descending as part of that of 
my grandfather who died more than a century since, coming to him 
from my great-grandfather, one of the statute corporators, who was 
grandson of the first comer of our tribe from England, and with 
other owners of the water lots around the Cove, between North and 
South batteries, began the island wharves for security against invasion 
by the Dutch fleet, in 1673, of which several wharves soon became the 
foundation and corner-stone of our Long Wharf, or Boston Pier : so 
that this estate, though small, may safely be expected to hold its just 
value as long as any earthly thing in pro|)ortion to the prosperity of 
my native city. Finally, knowing not of any debt to the amount of 
twenty thousand dollars, except that to the widow of my brother Wil- 
liam, as herein before provided for, I request the Judge of Probate to 
take from my executors for the faithful execution of their trust, bonds for 
nominal security only, if in his judgment it may seem consistent with 
exact fulfilment of his duty and perfect security to all legatees herein 
named ; and, as such executors, I appoint William B. Eogers, my 
son-in-law, and George Stillman Hillard, nephew of my deceased wife, 
esquires. Now in witness of all the foregoing, written with my own 
hand in the eighty-third year of my life, I pronounce and declare this 
document to be my last will and testament, this twenty-fifih day of 
January, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, in 
the presence of the witnesses by me selected, who herewith subscribe 
their names in the presence of each other and of the testator. 

Peter Wain weight. \ 

John Reed. \ James Savage. 

Wm. F. Conant. j 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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